Method for tying wire knots



March 20, 1956 A. R. J. LUKE 2,733,811

METHOD FOR TYING WIRE KNOTS Filed April 18, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 fww 5.3:;

March 20, 1956 A. R. J. LUKE 2,733,811

METHOD FOR TYING WIRE KNOTS Filed April 18, 1955 5.Sheets-Sheet 3 ftiorney March 20, 1956 A. R. J. LUKE 2,

METHOD FOR TYING WIRE KNOTS Filed April 18, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Figfilial-nay March 20, 1956 A. RFJ. LUKE 2,733,811

METHOD FOR TYING WIRE KNOTS Filed April 18, 1955 s Sheets-Sheet 5 Jiliormy used with hay balers or similar machines.

United sta es P er-11:0

' 2,738,811 METHOD FOR TYING WIRE KNOTS Albert R. I. Luke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, assignor to Massey Harris-Ferguson' Inc.

This invention pertains to wire knotters of the type This application is a division of my co-pending application Serial No. 303,556, filed August 8, 1952, now Patent, No. 2,712,838, issued July 12, 1955, entitled Wire Knotter which is a continuation-in-part of my application Serial Number 164,764, filed May27, 1950, now, abandoned. p p

It is an object of this invention to'provide a'rnethod of tying a wire knot in such a manner that it will not unwind regardless of the amount of tension under which the knot iii is placed and at the same timeutilize comparatively flight 7 length about one axis, the twisted portions so formed are given an additional twist about an axiswhich substantially 90 from the first, the two knotssoformed are separated by severing the two strands of wire'between the knots. p j

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as this disclosure progresses. Referring to the drawings:

Fig.1 is a plan .view of the bale before thefknot is started showing the ,bale as positioned in'the baling chamber. p

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the bale after the needle arm has brought the wire across to the knotter from the opposite side of the bale. l

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the bale after the knot is completed.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the main-twisted pinion showing one of the wires in position.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the main twisting pinion with both wires in place. 7 i a I Fig. 6 is a plan view of the main twisting pinion after it has made one complete revolution.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of the main twisting pinion after it has one and a half revolutions.

Fig. 8 is the same as Figure 7 but showing the two auxiliary twisting pinions.

Fig. 9 is an elevational view of the device as shown in Figure 8.

Fig. 10 is the completed knot.

Fig. 11 is a sectional view taken on line 11-11 of Figure 8 showing the cutter disc and spring.

Fig. 12 is an elevational view partially in section, showing the knotter frame and driving means.

Fig. 13 is an elevational view partially in section, taken on line 13--13 of Figure 12.

Fig. 14 is a plan view insection taken on line 14-14 of Figure 12.

Fig. 15 is a sectional view of an auxiliary twisting pinion taken on line 15--15 of Figure 16.

Fig. 16 is a plan view in section taken on line 1616 of Figure 14. 1

Referring more particularly to Figures 1, 2, and 3, the baling chamber 1 has two coils of wire 2, 2 located on opposite sides thereof. The knotter proper is located at one side of the chamber in the general area 3. The wire from the opposite side of the chamber is fed into the knotter by means of a needle arm (not shown) which is old in the art and is deemed to need no further explanation here.

Figure 4 shows the main twisting pinion 4 in the position it ordinarily occupies while the bale is being formed, having the wire 5 from coil 2 lying in the longitudinal groove 6 as the bale is formed in the chamber. When the proper amount of hay is in the chamber, the main pinion 4 is caused to revolve one-half of a revolution, and needle arms (not shown) having a pair of spaced rollers on the end of the needle bring the wire 7 from coil 2 across the end of the bale 8 and place the wire in groove 9 of the pinion. Main pinion 4 is then caused to make acomplete revolution forming the wire as shown in Figures 7 and 8 into two twists 10 and 11. The pinion 4 is of sufiicient diameter so the twisted portions formed thereby are of such length as to accommodate the auxiliary pinions 12, 13 which are presently to be described. After the main pinion 4 has made one revolution, the two auxiliary pinions 12 and 13 are brought into their respective concave recesses or slots 14 and 15 in pinion 4, the radial slots 24 and 25 of the auxiliary pinions fitting over the two twists 10 and 11 and then caused to rotate, thus forming knots 16 and 17. It will be noted that the second twists imparted by the auxiliary pinions 12, 13 are about an axis which is to the common axis, i. e., the axis of main pinion 4, about which the first twists 10, 11 were formed. In forming the second twists, the auxiliary pinions tightlywind each leg of the pairs of legs 10a--10b, Mic-10d, 11a--11b and 11c-11d of the original twists 1'0, 11 respectively, about the other. This twisting of each leg about the other otters considerable resistance to unwinding under tension.

By increasing the ratio of the diameter of gear 36 to the diameter of segment gear 34', i. e., making gear 36 smaller or making segment gear 34' larger and consequently increasing the length of effective tooth area, main pinion 4 can-be caused to rotate an additional revolution and thereby put an additional turn in the first twisted portions 10 and 11.

' The knots 16 and 17 are separated as follows; A hardened disc 18 is rotatably mounted in main pinion 4 which, as can be seen in Fig. 16, is made up of two half sections. Pin 19, which is fixedly mounted in the main pinion 4, normally holds the disc 18 in its inoperative position against the pressure of the spring 20. When it is desired to separate the knots, the dog 21 acts on notch 22 of the disc 18 causing the disc to rotate through a small are thus severing the wires by the action of the Y hardened disc jaws 23 against the hardened jaws formed by the grooves 6 and 9 of the pinion. Thus two knots are formed, one on the bale just completed and the other, shown at the lower left hand corner of the bale in Fig. 1, fastens the two wires together to form the beginning of the next bale loop. Thus there are two knots formed for each loop but only one operation of the knotter is required per loop. All of the wire is utilized and there are no free ends or particles of wire left in the bale or in the field.

The operation of the knotter for a complete cycle is as follows. This knotter ties two knots at the same time (two loops per bale) and as the mechanism is identical in structure and operation for both the upper and lower knotter, reference will be made to one or the other in this description with the understanding that they are identical.

While the bale is being formed, wires from coils 2 and 2 mounted on the baler frame are lying in grooves 30, 30' (Figure 13). They are pulled along until the trip (not shown), which is operated by a metering wheel well known in the art, put the mechanism into operation.

In Figure 12, the shaft 32, which is rotatably mounted in the knotter frame 33, is caused to turn by the trip mechanism through a bevel gear (not shown) at the top of the shaft. Secured to the shaft 32 are two segment gears 34 and 34' which drive pinion 36 and the corresponding pinion (not shown) for the top knotter. Mounted on the same shaft 38 as pinion 36 is the gear 40 and for each cycle of the knotter they make one revolution as does shaft 32. The main pinion 4 is turned 1% revolutions by gear 40 for each cycle as previously described, causing the twist in the wire as shown by Figure 7. At this time the main pinion 4 stops turning due to the dwell portion of the segment gear 34.

The means for swinging the auxiliary pinions 12 and 13 into working position and rotating them will now be described. Secured to the drive shaft 32 (Figure 12) is a bevel gear 42, which drives through bevel gear 44, shaft 46, bevel gear 48, and bevel gear 50 to rotate the cam shaft 52 (Figure 14) which is secured to bevel gear 50 and rotatably mounted in the knotter frame members 54 and 56. During the entire knotting cycle, the cam shaft is continually rotated and the cams S8 and 60 are so designed that they are inoperative until the main pinion 4 stops turning. In Figure 16 is shown the lower auxiliary twisting pinions 24, 25 in the open position and the top ones 12, 13 in the closed position for the sake of illustration. In practice, however, they could all twist at the same time and it would be impossible for the arms 62, 63, 64 and 65 to assume the position shown in Figure 16 as arms 62 and 63 are of one piece and diagonally opposite each other and both are in the closed (or open) position at the same time; the same is true of arms 64 and 65. The cam 58 bears against the roller 67 of the pair of arms 64, 65 and the cam 60 (Figure 13) bears against the roller 69 of arms 62, 63, thus forcing the auxiliary gears in and out of working position. When in the operative position, the grooves 24 and 25 of the auxiliary pinions straddle the twist and 11 in the wire at either side of main pinion 4.

At this time, segment gear 71 (Figure 14) starts to turn gear 73 which is rotatably mounted on shaft 75. The auxiliary twisting pinions 12, 13 are driven by gear 73 through idler gears 77 (Figure 16) which are rotatably mounted on arms 62, 63, 64 and 65 are in constant mesh with the auxiliary pinions 12, 13 and the gear 73. Aux iliary pinions 12 and 13 make two revolutions per cycle and produce the knot shown in Figure 10.

The cutting disc 18 previously described is operated as follows. Mounted on the lower portion 80 of gear 73 are two segment earns 82 (Figures 12 and 13) which push on rollers 84 which are rotatably mounted in dogs 21. After the auxiliary pinions have been rotated to produce the finished knot, the cams 82 push this dog 21 into contact with the notch 22 in the disc 18 and rotates it enough to shear the wires. The spring 20 then returns the disc to the non-operative position. The wires are thus freed from the knotter which is then in position to start through another cycle when actuated by the metering wheel and trip previously mentioned.

Having thus shown and described my invention, I claim:

1. .A method of tying a wire knot including, twisting a pair of wires together about one axis at two spaced points along their length thus forming twisted portions and maintaining said wires between said portions separate from each other, each portion having two pairs of legs extending therefrom and maintained in spaced-apart relationship, twisting the twisted portions and the legs of each pair about axes substantially at right angles to said first axis thereby forming two complete knots, severing the wires between the knots.

2. A method of tying a wire knot, including twisting a pair of substantially parallel wires together about one axis at two spaced points along their length thus forming twisted portions while at the same time maintaining said wires between said portions separate from each other, each portion having two pairs of legs extending there from and maintained in spaced-apart relationship, twisting the twisted portions and the legs of each pair about axes which extend through said portions and are substantially at right angles to said first axis thereby forming two complete knots, severing the wires between the knots.

3. A method of tying a wire knot including the following steps: twisting two strands of wire together about one axis at two spaced points along the length of the wires thus forming twisted portions and maintaining said strands between said portions separated from each other, each portion having two pairs of legs extending therefrom and maintaining them in spaced-apart relationship, twisting the twisted portions and the legs of each pair about axes which are substantially at right angles to said first axis thus forming two complete knots, severing the wires between the completed knots.

4. A method of tying a wire knot including, twisting a pair of spaced-apart wires together about one axis and only at two spaced locations along their length thus forming twisted portions each having two pairs of spacedapart legs extending therefrom, twisting said portions and the legs of each pair about axes which are substantially normal to said first axis thus forming two knots, severing the wires between the knots.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 764,318 Towncr July 5, 1904 1,180,934 Mottier Apr. 25, 1916 1,490,146 Troyer Apr. 15, 1924 1,889,372 Nolan Nov. 29, 1932 

